B.C. marijuana fires total 36 in 8 years

Kelly Sinoski and Matthew Robinson, Vancouver Sun04.02.2014

Marijuana grow lamps were to blame for 36 fires in B.C. over the past eight years, according to Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. data, and nearly a quarter of those blazes struck homes that had been licensed to grow medical marijuana.

Marijuana grow lamps were to blame for 36 fires in B.C. over the past eight years, according to Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. data, and nearly a quarter of those blazes struck homes that had been licensed to grow medical marijuana.

Risk of fire, such as the one that burned a massive medical marijuana operation in Surrey to the ground Monday, is just one of many hazards cited by the federal government in its battle against a temporary injunction granted by Federal Court last week that allows licensed users to keep growing plants in their homes.

“Given that marijuana growing operations require the use of high-powered lights that are not designed for residential home use, and the fact that marijuana plants require 12-18 hours of light a day, it is not surprising that these operations would face an increased risk of fire,” states a Federal Court submission compiled for Health Canada.

Medical marijuana users had sued Ottawa because they are concerned about the cost and quality of bud that is to be grown by commercial manufacturers under the government’s redesigned licensed marijuana scheme.

But according to the federal submission, the old system simply doesn’t work, and a startling high risk of fire is just one reason why.

According to the government, a 2010 RCMP report on medical marijuana grow operations across the country found fires up to 24 times more likely in homes with grow operations than those without.

The growing operations, reads the report, “are being set up with lighting and hydroponic growing equipment, and are being installed without the proper permits or inspections, most often in a residential neighbourhood.”

Those findings are consistent with data from the fire chiefs’ association, which points to faulty wiring, grow lamps and lights as catalysts for the fires.

Surrey RCMP Const. Shane Holmquist was quoted in the federal submission that he had documented in licensed grow operations “obviously unsafe wiring and the presence of ‘CO2 burners,’ which are essentially the equivalent of operating a BBQ inside your home.” He said the devices have been suspended precariously from ceilings and the open flames from the burners had resulted in injuries to growers.

But it is not just small-scale marijuana operations that put growers and neighbours at risk.

Monday’s fire that tore through the Port Kells warehouse, which had housed three medical marijuana licences, was just one of three fires to hit large licensed medical marijuana grow operations in B.C. in the last few months, according to the federal submission.

Police and fire officials are still investigating the cause of the latest fire, which Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis called suspicious. Neighbours of the former mushroom farm told The Sun they had seen the tenants removing equipment from the site in the days leading up to the fire.

Sgt. Dale Carr, a spokesman for the Surrey RCMP, said in an email Tuesday that Mounties would join the fire inspector at the scene to help determine whether the cause of the fire was suspicious. If so, said Carr, police would launch a criminal investigation.

Carr said police would only know if the buds had been harvested from the plants before the blaze hit the building had they been monitoring the operation. But he added that under the old federal system, police were not told the locations of licensed growing operations and Mounties only knew of sites they came across during the course of their regular duties. Carr would not say if this was one of those locations.

“We would not be in a position to identify whether the police have had dealing with this property or not,” he said.

Investigations by police over the past decade have revealed many criminal abuses of medical marijuana licenses, according to Health Canada’s Federal Court submission. It noted that abuse may stem from growers flouting their legal limit of pot plants and diverting excess product to the illicit drug market as a way to offset the high costs of electricity, equipment and chemicals used in cultivating the plant. But even when growers stuck to their plant count, according to the submission, they were able to grow “monster plants” that yield enormous quantities of marijuana.

A 2012 RCMP report found that not only were individual licence holders exploiting the outgoing marijuana regime, but organized criminals were starting to infiltrate it as well.

“Gaining access to or control of a medical marihuana grow operation is highly desirable for criminal networks due to the array of opportunities it would present for the illicit production and diversion of high-grade medical marihuana,” read the report.

At the same time, according to the submission, the “skunk-like odour” of marijuana is like an olfactory beacon that a growing operation is nearby, putting neighbours at risk from a rising number of violent “grow rips,” many that involve guns and knives, and some that have resulted in death. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of reported grow rips in B.C. has risen from two per year to 18 per year, Holmquist said, and the 2012 RCMP report found nearly one in five reported incidents of violence and home invasions associated with marijuana grow operations involved licensed operations.

According to Health Canada’s Federal Court submission, many, if not all, of the harms associated with illicit marijuana grow operations are also applicable to legal grows. Beyond the added risk of crime and fire, residential grow sites are also more exposed to mould and toxic chemicals, and put at risk children living in or near the sites.

“The issues we’re dealing with are exactly what we’re seeing; there’s been no inspection, people are growing and selling more than they should and they become illegal grow operations and feed into the international crime piece,” Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said. “When you’ve got fire safety issues it really saddles the municipality, with not only the cost but the public safety issues that we deal with.

“We need to be clear. Anybody that wants to use medicinal marijuana, there’s no issue at all; but let’s put some proper measures in place so the inspections can happen.”

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B.C. marijuana fires total 36 in 8 years

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